A New York woman has been jailed for nearly four years after pleading guilty to charges related to a fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars in COVID relief funds.
Sherry Joseph, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on November 10, 2022 and was sentenced to 45 months in prison last Friday.
Court documents reveal that she recruited multiple individuals to apply for fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in exchange for rebates from paychecks.
She sent their information to other co-conspirators, who created loan applications, including fake bank statements and payroll tax forms, and exaggerated the applicant’s employee count and monthly salary.
According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), all 30 people charged with participating in the Southern District of Florida, the Northern District of Ohio, and the Central District of North Carolina have been convicted.
Joseph himself was apparently on pretrial release on another federal fraud-related charge in the New Jersey area when he took part in the scheme.
The false application sought acceptable PPP loans totaling $9.2 million, guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
In addition to his prison sentence, Joseph was released under supervision for three years and ordered to pay over $1.6 million in damages and $55,000 in forfeiture.
Scammers were often the first to seek handouts, as the U.S. government spent trillions of dollars during the pandemic to soften the impact on the economy.
In December 2021, the Secret Service estimated that $100 billion may have been stolen. As of that month, the government said 150 people had been indicted in 95 criminal cases since the CARES Act was rolled out.
